Passes the Bechdel test

Eye in the Sky

Name: Eye in the Sky
Released: 2016

2016. Directed by Gavin Hood, written by Guy Hibbert.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
10 women characters. 10 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 5 scenes out of 346.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.

The film

Colonel Katherine Powell (Dame Helen Mirren) is a U.K.-based military officer in command of a top secret drone operation to capture terrorists in Kenya. Through remote surveillance and on-the-ground intel, Powell discovers the targets are planning a suicide bombing and the mission escalates from "capture" to "kill". But as American pilot Lieutenant Steve Watts (Aaron Paul) is about to engage, a nine-year old girl enters the kill zone triggering an international dispute, reaching the highest levels of U.S. and British government, over the moral, political, and personal implications of modern warfare.

Released: 01 Apr 2016
Genres: Drama, Thriller, War
Rated: R
IMDb: 7.3 / 10
Metascore: 73 / 100
Awards: 3 wins & 10 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Colonel Powell 183 lines, woman
Steve 87 lines, man
Lieutenant-General Benson 66 lines, man
Major Owiti 36 lines, man
Carrie 33 lines, woman
Woodale 30 lines, man
James 28 lines, man
Mushtaq 27 lines, man
Colonel Walsh 23 lines, man
Angela 22 lines, woman

Full cast, 71 people

Helen Mirren as Colonel Katherine Powell
Aaron Paul as Steve Watts
Alan Rickman as Lieutenant General Frank Benson
Barkhad Abdi as Jama Farah
Jeremy Northam as Brian Woodale
Phoebe Fox as Carrie Gershon
Armaan Haggio as Musa Mo'Allim
Aisha Takow as Alia Mo'Allim
Monica Dolan as Angela Northman
Richard McCabe as George Matherson
Babou Ceesay as Sergeant Mushtaq Saddiq
John Heffernan as Major Harold Webb
Michael O'Keefe as Ken Stanitzke
Laila Robins as Ms. Jillian Goldman
Iain Glen as James Willett
Faisa Hassan as Fatima Mo'Allim
Bob Chappell as Simon Powell
Alex Gallafent as Reporter
Carl Beukes as Sergeant Mike Gleeson
Kate Liquorish as Female Sergeant
Richard Stephenson as Staff Sergeant
Gabriella Pinto as Female Corporal
Tylan Wray as Male Corporal
Hossain Dahir as Driver One
Mondé Sibisi as Muhammad Abdisalaam
Warren Masemola as Agent Atieno
Ahmed Mohamed Ali as Omar
Lemogang Tsipa as Matt Levery
Paul Spaulding as Command Support Staff
Gavin Hood as Lieutenant Colonel Ed Walsh
Kenneth Fok as First Crewman
Zak Rowlands as Second Crewman - K. Moore
Henry Pilime as Parklands Gate Guard
Sammy Maina as Parklands Gate Guard
Hassan Abdullah as Shahid Ahmed
Ebby Weyime as Damisi
Vusi Kunene as Major Moses Owiti
Mohammed Ali Sahra as Militia Leader
Chaltu Ahmed as Poor Woman
Francis Chouler as Jack Cleary
Ed Suter as Benson's Aide-De-Camp
Roberto Kyle as Rasheed Hamud
Omar Abu Kadir as Driver Two
Kim Suzanne Engelbrecht as Lucy Galvez
James Alexander as Image Analyst
Dileef Rahim as Amadu Gate Guard
Robert Omache as Amadu Gate Guard
Istar Takow as Woman Buying Bread
Bronson Mwangi as Kenyan Captain
Lex King as Susan Danford / Ayesha Al-Hady
Andrew Ahula as Street Vendor (Buckets)
Hilowli Hassan as Militia Man
Abdi Mohamed Osman as Amadu Mukhtar
Dek Hassan as Abdullah Al-Hady
Ali Mohamed as Khalid
Ma Mohamed as Osman Abade
Jessica Jones as Kate Barnes
Daniel Fox as Tom Bellamy
Graham Hopkins as Nigel Adler
Sonia Esgueira as Esther Alvaraz
Mohamed Abdirahmaan as Abdi
Mohamed Fidow as Abdi Militia Soldier
Sabrina Hassan Abdulle as Woman Buying Bread
Fatima Mohamed Mohamud as Woman Buying Bread
Timayare Shamso Hassan as Passerby
Fowzia Dahir as Woman Buying Bread
Abdilatief Takow as Ali
Fatumo Sheknoor Ali as Pedestrian
Hamdi Adam Shire as Pedestrian
Thelma Mabina as Nurse
Sandile Ntobla as Doctor

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 8 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 3% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 346

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers

Scenes	Women's lines	Men's lines
1 to 8	2	0
9 to 16	13	0
17 to 24	7	6
25 to 32	13	9
33 to 40	13	13
41 to 48	4	26
49 to 56	5	5
57 to 64	8	19
65 to 72	22	20
73 to 80	8	6
81 to 88	7	6
89 to 96	5	9
97 to 104	12	11
105 to 112	4	6
113 to 120	2	8
121 to 128	8	12
129 to 136	6	20
137 to 144	9	15
145 to 152	19	29
153 to 160	16	26
161 to 168	4	17
169 to 176	1	14
177 to 184	5	14
185 to 192	5	6
193 to 200	6	7
201 to 208	13	14
209 to 216	4	9
217 to 224	11	13
225 to 232	10	17
233 to 240	4	21
241 to 248	2	16
249 to 256	11	15
257 to 264	19	26
265 to 272	1	2
273 to 280	1	0
281 to 288	3	5
289 to 296	2	1
297 to 304	4	1
305 to 312	4	2
313 to 320	0	2
321 to 328	0	0
329 to 336	7	6
337 to 344	3	12
345 to 346	0	0

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.

LUCY: Roger North20. I’d like to be closer. COLONEL POWELL: Peg90, go closer for PID.

COLONEL POWELL: Hawaii5, thank you! POWELL: We have her!

FATIMA FATIMA: Aa-liya rootiga waa diyaar! ALIA ALIA: Yes, mama! Haye, hooyo!

COLONEL POWELL: I repeat: you are cleared to engage. CARRIE: We can wait, can’t we?

ANGELA: If the one is not oneself. COLONEL POWELL: Secretary, this is an ethical argument we cannot get into at this moment. ANGELA: Colonel, perhaps you should address that comment to the little girl selling her bread! The ethical argument is precisely what we must “get i…

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 39 are women's.

303 lines from women, 466 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

10 women and 22 men in the cast. 10 women and 25 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

A woman speaks the first line. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 20 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 38% of the words (2,853), men 62% (4,612). Women have 39% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.

Conversations between two named characters

Two women

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

5 of the 15 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 24% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Gavin Hood (man)
Written by: Guy Hibbert (man)
Produced by: David Lancaster (man), Ged Doherty (man), Colin Firth (man)
Shot by: Haris Zambarloukos (man)
Edited by: Megan Gill (woman)
Music by: Paul Hepker (man), Mark Kilian (man)
Production design by: Johnny Breedt (man)
Costumes by: Ruy Filipe (gender not listed)
Cast by: Deborah Aquila (woman), Kate Dowd (woman), Tricia Wood (woman), Moonyeenn Lee (woman)